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United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

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Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#51

Post by DanBC »

extension wrote: post #46
hammerdr wrote: post #16

This is something that is very close to my family so I have a bit of experience with how the Postal Service is going. The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. The USPS is also required to deliver mail to even the most re…

Nearly all my mail ends up at addresses from my past. If it wasn't for e-bills, I would never receive (my own) bills. And I have received mountains of mail from countless former tenants at every place I've lived, mail they will never see. The post doesn't seem very reliable to me.

...but that's less about the postal systems than it is about people updating addresses or forwarding mail on.

I have some rubber stamps made with

    ADDRESSEE GONE AWAY
     RETURN TO SENDER
and that seems to cut down the amount of repeated post. You can dump all the post for one person in a big envelope and dump that in a post box once a month.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#52

Post by EGreg »

This ad is very misguided. Is there really no other reason to use mail? If not, then well ... it should go away lol.

I mean honestly ... mail doesn't get hacked? It is a felony to steal other people's mail, or open the envelope and replace it with something else. I can use social engineering at so many levels to replace a letter to someone, or make it go missing, I mean seriously? Come on. Distract the postman as your accomplish slips a letter in...

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#53

Post by Duff »

extension wrote: post #46
hammerdr wrote: post #16

This is something that is very close to my family so I have a bit of experience with how the Postal Service is going. The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. The USPS is also required to deliver mail to even the most re…

Nearly all my mail ends up at addresses from my past. If it wasn't for e-bills, I would never receive (my own) bills. And I have received mountains of mail from countless former tenants at every place I've lived, mail they will never see. The post doesn't seem very reliable to me.

That's kind of your problem.

If you used an old email address, you wouldn't get e-bills either.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#54

Post by docgnome »

extension wrote: post #46
hammerdr wrote: post #16

This is something that is very close to my family so I have a bit of experience with how the Postal Service is going. The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. The USPS is also required to deliver mail to even the most re…

Nearly all my mail ends up at addresses from my past. If it wasn't for e-bills, I would never receive (my own) bills. And I have received mountains of mail from countless former tenants at every place I've lived, mail they will never see. The post doesn't seem very reliable to me.

Oye, no joke. I get more mail for former residents of my home than I do for me. We have filled out the form to stop delivering that mail. Didn't work. We have called the mail annex the carriers leave from. Didn't work. We have left the carriers a friggin note. Didn't work. Also, my sister-in-law just sent us something she made for my daughter, which USPS promptly lost and did nothing to attempt to find. Granted she didn't add delivery confirmation on the package, but should I really have to pay extra to make sure my package will actually get there? If that is the case, raise the price of stamps to cover it.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#55

Post by roc »

pnathan wrote: post #44
roc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair: the USPS is being rushed out the door via a legislative hit job. They've been required to accumulate a reserve of 75 years-worth of worker benefits (retirement and healthcare) -- something I don't believe any other company or government service has to do -- and build up that reserve in 10 years, on their existing budget. So the speed of their decline is greatly exaggerated by this and not entirely reflect…

> UPS and FedEx are great and all, but they've nowhere near the customer focus that the USPS has. Wut? The local post offices I've used are perennially understaffed, never has enough people, the workers are unbelievably slow, the paper products are overpriced. It's absolutely the consistently worst customer service I have ever used.

I was referring to the mailbox that each and every residence and place of business has, regardless of their proximity and population density.

FedEx and UPS have service centers, but nowhere near as many as post offices and neither run widespread residential routes for pickup.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#56

Post by steauengeglase »

Anechoic wrote: post #23
timjahn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm aware of the government requirements on USPS but I believe that's irrelevant. The USPS would still be in the decline it is today regardless of whether or not they had to stash away all that money today, 5 years from now, or never. It's simple: people don't use the mail as much as they used to. And that trend is only going to continue. People will never increase their use of the USPS. "UPS and FedEx are great and…

I'm aware of the government requirements on USPS but I believe that's irrelevant. The USPS would still be in the decline it is today regardless of whether or not they had to stash away all that money today, 5 years from now, or never. They would still be in decline, but they actually run an operating profit right now. If/as mail volume further declines they can cut & consolidate facilities to a point where they can s…

I'll be happy to put on my tinfoil hat and tell you what I think is really going on.

The USPS does a lot more than ship packages and letters. They are also the government's mass printer. That VA letter and social security check probably wasn't printed in a Virginia suburb, but at one of the regional USPS printing offices. They also handle very high security items, not just to you, but between government agencies under conditions that would make the warden of a maximum security prison blush. The term "going postal" isn't about some guy at your local post office flipping out over the number of people waiting to get their packages weighed, but about some guy who has spent decades wondering if the guy standing next to him is a postal inspector just itching to see him screw up.

To put it another way, they offset a lot of other agencies costs (at least in overhead). I'm certainly not saying it would be better or worse if all of this were handled by the private sector, but I will say it would require a lot of restructuring and make someone a huge pile of cash. Still, it is going to happen sooner or later. Politically it is just too sweet.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#57

Post by lnguyen »

extension wrote: post #46
hammerdr wrote: post #16

This is something that is very close to my family so I have a bit of experience with how the Postal Service is going. The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. The USPS is also required to deliver mail to even the most re…

Nearly all my mail ends up at addresses from my past. If it wasn't for e-bills, I would never receive (my own) bills. And I have received mountains of mail from countless former tenants at every place I've lived, mail they will never see. The post doesn't seem very reliable to me.

It is reliable if the address that's on the piece of mail is where it was sent to. The issue then is whoever's maintaining the address and paying to postage for sending it there.

Also mail forwarding's worked pretty well for me. Just fill the info online or drop the card in the mail.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#58

Post by pavelkaroukin »

DanBC wrote: post #51
extension wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly all my mail ends up at addresses from my past. If it wasn't for e-bills, I would never receive (my own) bills. And I have received mountains of mail from countless former tenants at every place I've lived, mail they will never see. The post doesn't seem very reliable to me.

...but that's less about the postal systems than it is about people updating addresses or forwarding mail on. I have some rubber stamps made with ADDRESSEE GONE AWAY RETURN TO SENDER and that seems to cut down the amount of repeated post. You can dump all the post for one person in a big envelope and dump that in a post box once a month.

And how it works after that? USPS just return mail to sender with no questions asked? I recently bought a house and also receiving bunch of mails. Once - check for few hundreds of some refund from some utility company. Thanks I had contact info of previous tenant, so I could mail it to him (never got a thanks letter :))

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#59

Post by pavelkaroukin »

beambot wrote: post #50
dwiel wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, I see way more junk mail in my mail box than I do in my email inbox ...

What about in your spam folder? You sure it isn't just a case of good Bayesian filtering? Cool business idea: Bayesian filtering for snail mail.

From what I understand, all spam in mailboxes appear from cooperation of USPS with advertisers, since most ads do not have any address stamped on it. So it looks like USPS actually distribute spam.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#60

Post by motoford »

While this article has some good points, I feel it's advice on how to advertise is misguided. Why does a government mandated monopoly waste money advertising?

Every time USPS asks for a rate increase I can't help but wonder how much they spent on Lance Armstrong or the other advertising campaigns.

Make your service efficient and reliable, that's your job. You haven't been glamorous since the pony express days (I know thats a myth).

I want my mail to be reliably delivered at a good price. I don't want you to be slick or hip.

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